I'd like to get Charter internet at our house.Our house sits just outside Charter & AT&T's coverage area. If not for some trees, I could look out my front door and see where coverage stops. Maybe 1/4 mile away or so.

It's like pulling teeth when talking to Charter about their plans for expansion. I've been inquiring for over 2 1/2 years now...and nothing.They can't/won't tell me anything and they won't give out the phone number to our local office (Maryville, IL).They say I have to go there. WTF?

There are 9 houses back by us and if Charter were to expand just a tad, I'm sure most if not all would at least get Charter internet, and some would probably get Charter tv & phone as well. You'd think the cost of expanding a 1/4 mile could be recouped in no time with what folks are paying for internet and tv on a 2-year contract and then some.

I know Charter gets a bad rap and some folks hate 'em, but I live in a rural area (5 minutes outside Edwardsville, IL, so it's not THAT rural) and we are severely limited in our internet choices...so I would love Charter. Right now, it's either dial-up, satellite, or wireless broadband for us.

We currently have wireless broadband (Clearwire or Clear) and it's meh. The download speed can be compared to slow DSL at best, maybe 2mb down on a good day and the upload speed is awful/horrible/terrible...maybe 150k at best. That's rough when I have a small web design business and the wife has a photography business out of the home and we both do a LOT of uploading.Streaming video is hit or miss. It will usually play ok, but it often has to pause to buffer and catch up every now and then.

Nobody is happy with their internet service by us.

Anyone have any insight on Charter's expansion procedures, how long it takes to do stuff like that, how much it costs them to run their lines 1/4 mile, etc? And will writing/talking to them will do any good?

Right now, it's either dial-up, satellite, or wireless broadband for us.

Well actually I don't live in the states, but I actually do networking for Swisscom, and therefore my advise is, go with dial-up. Since you already said yourself wireless is "meh", satellite is meher if not the mehest of the choices. It's somehow same technology as wireless bb, there simply is no cable, but the distance is massively bigger (going all the way into space and back again).

I don't know your expectations and needs in terms of speed, but over here we get 20MB/s downstream on a 4-wire-cable and 50MB/s on a coax-cable (which won't be possible as dial solution I suppose). Upload has to be seen.

Bottom line, if you ask me I'd definitely go with dial-up, it's the most stable option in my eyes, if you don't have the wireless-access-point right aside your house - even then, personally I'd sill go with the cable.

Since there was no word about prices and if you already talk to the provider to expand their lines with all the construction-works, isn't there any way you might get fibre instead of copper?

Who is online

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum